Every story has two sides. The story of how
Oakland’s two largest universities benefit a community has
already been told. OaklandDignity.com shows the story of how these
universities’ domination, insatiable greed, broken trust and
silence are a deadly combination that can slowly lead to the near
extinction of that same community; they can control others like puppets
on a string. This website focuses on the devastating impact of the
University of Pittsburgh on South Oakland, though the impact of Carnegie
Mellon University on North Oakland is nearly as devastating. No community
in America that hosts universities deserves such an experience.

Panther Hollow, one of Pittsburgh’s first Italian
neighborhoods, is located in Oakland. Its longtime residents’ efforts
to protect and preserve that sacred legacy are on the website www.SavePantherHollow.com.

Carlino Giampolo

Open Letter to
University of Pittsburgh
Chief of Staff Kathy Humphrey

Kathy Humphrey
Chief of Staff
University of Pittsburgh

September 23, 2017

Shameful and Pitthetic

Pitthetic: noun – a university, organization, government entity,
or individual that negatively impacts a community by action or inaction;
adjective – pathetic as a direct result of a university, organization,
government entity, or individual’s negative influence.

Dear Ms. Humphrey:

The above given definitions of “Pitthetic”
aptly describe the devastating impact Pitt’s presence has made
on the community of Oakland. It is not hyperbole to say that
no urban community in America has been as severely impacted by a university’s
presence as Oakland has. No other university has grown to
35,000 students and taken over the ownership of more than 100 buildings
in its host community. Nor has any other once-thriving, multi-ethnic
urban community lost over 80% of its residents due mainly to a university’s
presence. Pitt’s unprecedented, insatiable greed and uncontrolled
growth is a ruthless cancer decimating Oakland’s residential
and business districts. That is shameful and Pitthetic.

My grandparents settled in Oakland before the university arrived in
1909. For over half a century prior to the university’s arrival,
thousands of hardworking immigrants came to Oakland and built this
neighborhood for their families and future generations. I can say with
confidence that if my grandparents, and others who had built in Oakland
alongside them, could have foreseen the unfathomable scope of the destruction
to the landscape—as well as the pain and suffering the university’s
presence would bring to future residents—they never would have
allowed the university to move from the North Side to their beloved
Oakland. The conscience that permeates the university, especially
in the last five decades—in which economic profit trumps human
dignity—continues today. That is shameful and Pitthetic.

On February 6, 2017, I wrote a letter with these concerns to Chancellor
Patrick Gallagher and emailed a copy to you, requesting you forward
the letter to members of the Board of Trustees. The decisions of the
board have a profound impact on our community, and I believe they should
be aware of our concerns. Either you ignored the letter or
it was never delivered to you, because I received no reply. In
the past, your predecessor even admitted to me that some of my emails
to Chancellor Mark Nordenberg were never delivered, because he would
intercept them.

I did ask our Oakland councilman and senator to assist me in asking
you to forward the letter, but they chose not to get involved. These
decisions illustrate that power is simply the ability to choose whether
or not to take action. The university leaders have an inordinate
amount of power because other Oakland leaders’
refusal to act enables the university to exert their own power unrestrained,
instead of helping to end the suffering of their community. I have
no confirmation that the Board of Trustees ever received my letter.
That is shameful and Pitthetic.

One month after sending you that email, I attended the memorial service
for the renowned Dr. Thomas Starzl, a friend of our family. He
was a person of high dignity and a humanitarian in every true sense
of the word, and he will always have our family’s deepest respect
and admiration. I am certain that if he were alive today,
he would tell you that Oakland didn’t need to be decimated by
university policies in order for him to perform his remarkable work.

You sang at the service and I was impressed by your powerful voice.
I approached you after the service concluded and complimented your
singing, and then introduced myself. You responded as if you had never
heard my name before, allowing me to believe that you never received
my email. When you and Chancellor Patrick Gallagher took office, our
community hoped that a conscience of love and respect for our community
would emerge, and there would be a new beginning. Instead,
the present administration is a continuation of the destructive ways
of the university’s past. That is shameful and Pitthetic.

You work in a male-dominated environment both within and outside
of the university, and that may invoke pressure. You are
the first high-level female administrator since 2007 that I have
communicated with concerning our community’s problems. And
of course, there has never been a female chancellor in the history
of the university.

Though you are a minority in your profession, you are not alone in
your silence of watching our community suffer and be decimated by Pitt. Over
4,000 Pitt faculty members have done the same. It is not ignorance
that prevents these teachers of our future leaders from breaking their
silence and using their voices to defend our community, for our concerns
are pervasive and of great importance. Most likely, it is fear that
prevents them from putting their values into action. Since 2008, 10
messages were published in their faculty newspaper delineating our
problems and the solutions—and yet the faculty’s voices
remain silent. That is shameful and Pitthetic.

There are numerous symbols of shame throughout Oakland due to the
university’s presence. One of the most egregious is the Mark
A. Nordenberg Hall built in 2013 to house 559 first-year students only. That
building symbolizes the incessant greed, self-centeredness, and never-ending
expansion prioritized by the university leaders. The hall
never should have been built. Its effects bring further pain and suffering
to our community. Although it greatly enriches the coffers of the university,
it has attracted developers who are further destroying our business
and residential districts with their student housing projects in order
to accommodate the university’s ever-increasing enrollment.

The Oakland Planning and Development Corporation was compelled to
initiate a Community Land Trust program to try and keep a semblance
of a residential community, but it cannot succeed unless the corporation’s
leaders raise their voices to stop the university’s expansion.
Our councilman must raise his voice in a similar manner for he is now
experiencing the effects of the cancerous spread of increased student
enrollment in his own neighborhood of the South Side. He is experiencing
the suffering there as more generations of longtime residents leave,
while he attempts to pass laws to curb the horrific student binge drinking
problem that plagues both the South Side and Oakland. Chancellor
Patrick Gallagher makes no attempt to stop this overwhelming student
enrollment increase. That is shameful and Pitthetic.

Shame is a real emotion that is often not talked about because it
can be too strong or frightening a word. However, shame can
destroy individuals, communities, and countries. It diminishes
one’s dignity. Almost all adults encounter it in life either
by their own actions, or by the shame that is passed on to them by
others. Shame-based individuals can be overachieving, competitive,
and perfectionist, act super-human or sub-human, and often don’t
recognize their own shame. However, feeling shame can be an integral
part of one’s spiritual journey as it can lead to remorse and
the choice to take appropriate action to end the shame.

Shame that is numbed, masked, denied, or ignored will continue
to grow. Our community has been systematically decimated
by the presence of the university. No leaders of the university,
past or present, have expressed compassion or empathy for the massive
takeover of our land by the university, and for the suffering of
our people. That is shameful and Pitthetic.

Our grassroots movement began in 2007 with a simple desire to implement
an environmental program to end the litter and trash problems in our
community caused mainly by university students. Oakland has the reputation
of being the city’s filthiest neighborhood. We asked
university leaders to provide our community with the equivalent of
only $4 dollars of each student’s tuition fee to implement a
daily maintenance program, and we were denied. Those squalid
conditions are symbolic of the university leaders’ conscience
that does not take responsibility for these unclean conditions and
tries to pass their shame onto our community.

One stupefying suggestion by a vice chancellor was that longtime elderly
residents, among other property owners, should be taxed and pay for
a Neighborhood Improved District to end the problem. Another dumbfounding
remark by a university vice chancellor was that we should already be
satisfied because once a month, the university sends us students who
walk around the neighborhood and pick up litter. The yearly
increasing student population has exacerbated the litter and trash
problem. That is shameful and Pitthetic.

From this basic initiative, our grassroots movement has expanded to
deal with myriad problems concerning the university’s presence.
There are now 80 links on www.OaklandDignity.com describing actions
taken to protect and preserve our community. One of those problems
was in 2015 when the city, nonprofit organizations, and others planned
to build a roadway through historic Panther Hollow and The Run in Greenfield,
to connect the Almono site in Hazelwood to Pitt and CMU. Those who
advocated for the roadway weren’t concerned that our two neighborhoods
would be destroyed, because they only wanted to satisfy the insatiable
expansion of Pitt and CMU, and add to the glory of Pittsburgh leaders
in their attempt to make the city the Silicon Valley of the East. Our
residents triumphed, but not a voice from the university’s more
than 10,000 employees, including your own, offered us support. Should
those disastrous plans be resurrected, we will continue to seek the
help of the district attorney and others agencies to uncover any wrongdoings.

A similar attempt to destroy Panther Hollow transpired in the 1960s
when then-chancellor Edward Litchfield proposed a $250 million 21st
century Research Park complex which would have obliterated 60 homes
and displaced 250 longtime Italian residents.* Even though our residents
triumphed over his efforts, he continued his injurious expansion plans
by purchasing the iconic Forbes Field and leveling it. He then
convinced a state agency to invoke eminent domain across the street,
and proceeded to demolish homes, businesses, and a church.* He
is another chancellor who was treated as a hero by the university by
having a building named after him. Our true heroes are the men and
women who fought for human dignity and social justice to protect and
preserve our community’s identity. As our current grassroots
movement demonstrates, we will continue to push back on destructive
plans such as this. Today, the site where the eminent domain occurred
is not for the public good, but rather is now occupied by the university’s
Bouquet Garden dormitories. That is shameful and Pitthetic.

The issues threatening the very identity and existence of
our residential community are ever increasing. Ten days
ago, an article appeared in the online edition of the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette titled, “Study: Pittsburgh and its universities
aren’t leveraging full economic potential”. It was conducted
by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution and called for
the creation of an Oakland Innovation District that would encompass
the entire 1.7-square-mile neighborhood. The study was paid for by
the Hillman Foundation and Heinz Endowments, the same nonprofit foundation
that is part-owner of the Almono site and whose leaders advocated
for a roadway through the historic neighborhood of Panther Hollow
and The Run in Greenfield.

The article went on to mention that this initiative brings together
the “big guns” in Pittsburgh such as: Allegheny County
Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, Chancellor
Patrick Gallagher, Carnegie Mellon University interim President Farnam
Jahanian, UPMC President and CEO Jeffrey Romoff, Hillman Family Foundation
President David K. Roger and Heinz Endowments President Grant Oliphant.
Did anyone honestly expect this sham study to objectively conclude
that Oakland’s residential and business districts must be protected
and preserved? These men act with a bully-like consciousness, and we
all know the true nature of bullies. Does anyone truly believe
that any of them would want a massive University of Pittsburgh-like
institution in their own neighborhood? Do you believe any
of them want student housing projects to be built adjacent to their
family homes? This biased study is a further attempt to destroy our
neighborhood and add to our people’s suffering. That is shameful
and Pitthetic.

Thousands of Oakland residents’
lives have been severely impacted by the uncontrolled growth of the
university. Not only must these individuals overcome personal crises
as do all residents of Pittsburgh, but they also must overcome crises
from the massive presence of Pitt. One resident named Mary was born
and raised in Panther Hollow, and lived there for her entire 87 years.
She married another Panther Hollow resident and together, they raised
six children. She lost both her husband and one of her sons to cancer,
and one of her daughters was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. For
the past decade, she has lived with her legally blind son. She
was one of many exceptional and blessed women from our neighborhood,
and her home was always a gathering place for residents to enjoy
good food and conversation.

When the city made the decision in 2015 to build a roadway through
Panther Hollow, she was overcome with tremendous fear, anxiety, and
worry. She and her son had vowed to never leave Panther Hollow, but
they were now uncertain of their future. She died in 2016 from
heart failure without knowing if the city’s grant proposal to
build the roadway would be approved or not. Do you think any
of the big guns of Pittsburgh mentioned above, or any of your university
administrators, cared about her or her son’s life?

She was one of my inspirations to begin the grassroots movement to
end the domination of Pitt over our community. In 2007, I visited her
home and saw her sitting at the kitchen table with head in hands, near
tears, and I asked what happened. She replied that once again in numerous
ongoing happenings, she and her son could not sleep because of students’ binge-drinking
parties. She said others in the neighborhood were suffering the same
fate. She also related that her brother-in-law, who lived nearby, had
feces thrown into his yard and the family pet poisoned, among other
atrocities, because he had reported the drinking problems to the police.
Recently, her legally blind son has been hospitalized several times
with a serious illness, while other residents on our street are now
fighting to prevent outsiders from building town houses for student
rentals. Pitt administrators continue to act as if they have
had no negative impact upon our community. That is shameful
and Pitthetic.

You have the power of choice to make a difference and become a voice
for our community. You always were an avid supporter of students, and
now is the time to put your values into action. To take that
action will require courage, be prepared to be told you are wrong in
the pursuit of what is right. The opposite of courage is not
cowardice but rather unthinking or silent conformity. Although you
are a very active member in your church, you might agree that a person’s
choices in daily life are a true religion in itself. You will have
to assess and appraise your values. Does the university truly have
the right to destroy its host community because it is the “economic
engine” of the city?

Seven years ago, I said this at a public city council meeting: “We
have told Pitt administrators that they cannot take away our dignity,
diminish our intensity, shackle our freedom, or break our spirit. They
will never silence the voice of our soul.” Our community
hopes you will express the same sentiment to your fellow administrators
and break away from the university’s shameful and Pitthetic past. Please
forward this letter to all members of the Board of Trustees and share
with us your thoughts.

Sincerely,
Carlino Giampolo

*Correction: Forbes Field was purchased by the university in 1958 during the tenure of Chancellor Edward Litchfield. It was not during his tenure but the tenure of his successor, Chancellor Wesley Posvar, that Forbes Field was leveled and eminent domain invoked across the street by a state agency, resulting in homes, businesses, and a church demolished.

The following email was sent to Chief of Staff Kathy Humphrey on November
6, 2017 after she responded to the above letter. She has not replied
to the email.

Dear Dr. Humphrey,

Your response is most disappointing in that our
community had hoped you would have the courage, empathy, and compassion
to be a beacon of light for positive change. You refrained from commenting
on all of the cogent points contained in my letter, and chose to ignore
the pain and suffering of the Oakland residents caused by the university's
presence in our home.

We asked that you open your heart and put your faith into action.
Instead, your response seemed to be a generalized collaboration with
other university administrators, and was basically a reiteration of
a letter sent to me by Vice Chancellor Paul Supowitz in 2013. Therefore,
instead of sending you an in-depth reply, you can read my response
to Mr. Supowitz at www.OaklandDignity.com (Link
4).

I invite you to engage in more constructive dialogue. Would you like
to meet one-on-one?

The following is just one of numerous comments made about the article:

As a former tenured faculty member in the School of Medicine at Pitt, I can say that the immoral culture extends across campus and beyond sexual harassment and gender-based pay discrimination. In addition to hearing complaints over the years from student, medical residents and fellows regarding sexual harassment, I experienced the pattern of administrative coverup and harassment following my reporting of extensive research misconduct by a male colleague. All effort and expense directed by the administrative “boys’ club” was brought to bear to force my departure and protect the male faculty member, no matter the egregious level of admitted misconduct. Like you, I was able to bring these charges to light because I was tenured and successful in my position. I share so much of the experience you have written about: being dragged through the mud professionally and finally deciding to leave the toxic environment because the retribution would likely never end. I continue to seek correction of this through litigation, but as you correctly state, Pitt has deep pockets and unfortunately local judges who are Pitt Law faculty members. I applaud your efforts to continue to bring light to this toxic, immoral culture.